Christine nightclub shootout

The Christine nightclub shootout occurred on 12 March 1989 when several Sinaloa Cartel gunmen, wearing police uniforms, massacred several Tijuana Cartel members and partygoers at the Christine discotheque in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico during Benjamin Arellano Felix's birthday party. The gunmen, led by Joaquin Guzman Loera's hitman Tono, opened fire on the guards with submachine guns, spraying the crowd with bullets. They succeeded in capturing the younger Arellano Felix brother Lobito Arellano Felix, who was later released without harm by Guzman. The shootout was a sign that the war was continuing despite the previous peace made between the two cartels in the aftermath of the Otay warehouse raid, and the shootout had people across Mexico talking.

The shootout occurred in the context of a violent drug war between the Tijuana and Sinaloa cartels, with Guzman seeking revenge for the murder of the wife and two young daughters of his right-hand man Hector Luis Palma Salazar at the hands of Tijuana hitmen. The man responsible for the murders was killed in a Caracas, Venezuela prison, and Palma had Guzman promise that he would kill all of the men responsible. Ismael Zambada Garcia assisted El Chapo in laying out the plans for the attack, as Zambada knew that the Arellanos had crossed a line with their attack. He booked the party at the Christine nightclub, but he refused to attend, saying that the food did not rest well with him. Upon receiving this phone call, Benjamin decided to leave the party; Ramon Arellano Felix escaped the shootout as it was happening. The Mexican government contacted the mediator between the two cartels, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who decided that he would kill El Chapo in order to bring the war to an end. The next major action of the war was the 1993 Guadalajara International Airport shootout.